Love Hotel

This love hotel in Himeji has a Christmas theme all year round

Love hotels can be found all over Japan and, as their name
suggests, exist
primarily to allow couples to have some private time together. While
the concept of hotel rooms intended more for love-making than for
sleeping
may seem distasteful to Westerners, in Japan they’re just
matter-of-fact
practicalities. Young people often live with their parents well into
their twenties,
and grandparents sometimes move in with their children once they’re
retired, so couples have good reason for wanting a bit of extra privacy
now
and again.

Often the only clue that a hotel is a love hotel is that it displays separate prices for ‘rests’ and ‘stays’

The key feature that distinguishes a love hotel from an ordinary
hotel is not
what people get up to in the rooms (let’s face it – people do that in
regular hotel rooms too) – it’s that love hotels rent rooms for two or
three hour ‘rests’. Peak hours are evenings, which means that
good deals
can be obtained for overnight ‘stays’ if you arrive
after about ten. (Most love hotels display separate prices for rests
and stays outside, sometimes dynamically updating these depending on
the time of
day, and on how busy they are.)

In some love hotels, you can choose your room by pressing a button next to a picture showing what it’s like inside

What makes a
stay at a love hotel special is the efforts that many of them make to
liven up
their guests’ experiences. While some are in ordinary, dull, concrete
buildings, others have gaudy, fantasy exteriors – built to look
like European castles, or painted in bright colours and
adorned
with neon lights and love hearts. Entering the lobby, there is often a
panel on
the wall with photos of the rooms – those currently vacant will be lit
up. Take
a good look at these – as the more upmarket love hotels have a wide
range of themed
rooms – and not everyone will appreciate
staying in
a dungeon where chains and shackles descend from the ceiling, or a room
where
all the walls are mirrors. Once you’ve pressed a button to make your
selection,
a key may emerge from a slot, or the room door may open automatically
(it will
lock shut once you’ve entered the room and closed it – not a problem as
you
don’t normally go out of the room until it’s time to leave).

At some love
hotels you just
check in with a receptionist like normal, but generally contact with
staff is
kept to a minimum, and the receptionist is often hidden behind a
frosted-glass
window. There’s no need to give your name or address when you arrive –
your
stay will be completely anonymous –
once you
leave there will be no record of you having been there.
Sometimes you
even pay
your bill using an automatic machine. (At the most high-tech
establishments,
the door won’t open to let you leave until you’ve inserted the right
amount of
money – so make sure you’ve got enough cash on you before you go in.)

A Hello Kitty themed bondage room, at the Adonis love hotel in Osaka

The range of rooms available is evidence of the fantasies and
fetishes of Japan’s population. There are mock hospital wards,
churches,
trains and pirate ships, the walls are sometimes decorated with garish
cartoon characters, or a giant Hello Kitty may be mounted on the wall
above the
bed. Some hotels even have a catalogue of cosplay outfits
available for rent – so if it’s your dream to dress up as a bunny
rabbit, cheerleader, bride, or French maid, now’s your chance to make
it come true. If that’s not enough to make your day, then maybe the
circular
rotating waterbed, or the heart-shaped Jacuzzi will
be. The mini-bars are stocked with sex toys in
addition to the usual range of drinks, and if you get hungry room
service is on hand. Most rooms have no windows, so once inside you’re
in a private
world for the duration of your stay – completely sealed off from the
noise,
stress and daily grind of the world outside.

Other facilities available may include a karaoke machine, a
big
screen TV, and a selection of DVDs. It might seem that
this leaves a lot to fit into a
fairly short stay, but you should bear in mind that sometimes couples
use love
hotels just to hang out and have some private time together, rather
than to indulge
in carnal recreation. Love hotels are found all over Japan – out in the
suburbs as well as in the centres of big cities – they’ve become such a
staple of
life in Japan that many Japanese find it hard to believe they don’t
exist
overseas.

This love hotel comes complete with an ensuite karaoke machine

While it’s not generally possible to reserve rooms, love hotels are
so numerous (there are more
than 30,000 nationwide), that you’re almost certain to find a
free room somewhere without too much
trouble. Prices for an overnight stay vary greatly depending on the
location of
the hotel, and on what special features the rooms have, but are
typically
around ¥6,000 to ¥10,000. Two of the best (though certainly not
the cheapest) are the P&A
Plaza in Tokyo’s Shibuya district, where you
can choose between a swimming pool and a cave bath, and
Snow Man’s
in Kobe, which has an open-air room on the roof.